COD Jajce / It is high time we think about nature protection and ‘live’ the circular economy
In the period from 23 to 27 May 2022, for the first time in the city of Jajce, “Circular economy week”, were held organized by the Center for Education and Socializing, and with the support of Balkan Forum regional “LogEx” groups.
At a time when most Western European countries are ‘living’ the circular economy, doing everything to preserve nature and natural resources, including waste sorting, recycling and reuse, Bosnia and Herzegovina is unfortunately not even at the beginning of this process.
To raise the awareness and importance of the circular economy, to citizens of Jajce was shown a round table held as part of the Circular Economy Day with the moderation of the Sarajevo organization CENER21. In addition to the concepts of circular economy, the representatives of public institutions and the private sector discussed the issues we face every day when it comes to waste, ways to influence citizens to think in the direction of waste separation, and the issue of its disposal.
This was just one small step towards, we hope, concrete steps for the city of Jajce, and the whole of Bosnia and Herzegovina, to start thinking in the direction of preserving nature and the circular economy.
A more interesting and beautiful part followed in the work with primary schools “Berta Kučera” and “13 rujan” known as two schools under one roof, one of which is attended by Bosniak children and the other by Croatian children. Educational and creative workshops with children lasted two days during which children learned the basic concepts of circular economy, watched short thematic educational films, after which they set out to make new and useful items from recyclable materials.
Aware of the damage that waste does to our nature and the environment, the children and their mentors removed the waste from the school yard and sorted it accordingly.
To go a step further, with the help of their moderators, the children gave the old locker a whole new purpose. Thanks to their valuable handles, the children made a bin from the lockers for sorting plastic and paper waste materials, and a new bin is located in the school so that children can learn the importance of separating waste on a daily basis.
Proud of their work, the children in the school yard wrote a message to all their peers: Be cool reycle in school!
We marked the end of the two-day gathering at the school with the awarding of certificates of appreciation to primary schools “13 rujan” and “Berta Kučera”, and the removal of plastic packaging for recycling, which the children collected during the past days.
We are extremely proud of all participants in the project, their interest in the topic and engagement. This was one small step in order to introduce the circular economy into our daily lives. However, the most important thing is that the message of the importance of nature conservation and the circular economy was adopted by the youngest, because the world remains on them.
